I haven't been to the mtns in a long time. first went skiing in elementary school and then went snowboarding once last yr, that's all my experience so far. i'm looking at getting into snowboarding. what's the best mountain for a beginner? it seems Seymour is really good and the cheapest with its student season pass ($475). i also checked out http://frostyrider.com/tips/size-guide.htm to get sizes, do you think it's accurate? for a beginner should i get a freestyle, freeride or an all around board? any other tips would be great.

any good online stores to buy snowboard gear from??

malamikigo

01-02-2008, 05:02 AM

cypress - most expensive, 2 high speed quads, wettest snow (closest to the ocean), in my experience, lots of novice riders in the way (not so big a deal for you since you're a novice rider as well.) lots of night runs, if you'll mainly be going at night

grouse - also two high speed quads, snow-making capabilities, a bit cheaper than cypress (i believe), nice big wide run (the cut), good for beginners. major tourist trap. taking the gondola up with a bunch of fine-diners and brazilian photo-tour groups is enough to drive me away from the mountain. quite a few night runs as well

seymour - slow chairs (no high speed quads), best quality fluffy stuff, great back country, many less runs than either of the other mountains, very limited night runs, cheapest of the three by far

so, that's my synopsis. Personally, I buy a season's pass for seymour every year because it's so cheap to buy it for students pre-season (200 bucks). if you're just learning, you don't need a mountain bigger than seymour...i'd go there and spend your days on mystery chair, or even on lodge chair if you want a run as wide as a football field.

You should probably get a freeride board as it'll be more all purpose. Also, don't go and buy the most expensive board you can just because you can afford it. You won't be doing yourself any favours in learning. Beginners ride should ride softer (which generally also works out to cheaper) boards because they're a lot easier to turn and to get the feel for turning. As for sizing, that calculator seems to be fairly accurate. I generally ride a 164, and it calculated me as needing a 163 when I plugged in all my details. Just be honest with it...no sense getting the wrong board because you tell it you're intermediate when you're a beginner!

An online store worth checking out is: www.backcountry.com . I've ordered stuff off there on a number of occasions and it's usually the cheapest prices I can find anywhere.

Good luck, and hope to see you up on the hill!

Jaybo

01-02-2008, 08:45 AM

Grouse is probably the best for a beginner... the hordes can't be wrong.
Why not rent/demo your board/boots and get an idea of what you want in a board or to see if you're really going to go that much.
Get a good jacket, gloves, and pants; like riding in the rain, it's much more enjoyable dry. Make sure your boots fit well, very snug, yet comfortable, with no heel lift. I'd stay away from a freestyle board as a beginner.. anything else is fine.. IMO I'd probably go a little smaller on the length to start with.. I don't know how tall or heavy you are but a 159 is a good start.. it'll be easier to work with at the start..

racerboy88

01-02-2008, 11:56 AM

I like cypress the best out of all the local hills.

JAYJ

01-02-2008, 01:20 PM

I haven't been to Seymour... but out of grouse and cypress.... cypress for sure.

redness

01-02-2008, 01:29 PM

depends on what type of riding you wnat

Cypress has good fall lines
Grouse is ok, not a huge fan
Seymour is a awesome hill for back country and the runs are ok, but the back side is where it's at.

For just taking a lift and bombing runs i would go Cypress.

italy430

01-02-2008, 01:42 PM

I think i'll end up at Seymour, the low student rate, my beginner status, and the "best quality fluffy stuff" is good. As for the calculator it told me a 161 board, which i think i was given last year when i rented. and it said a 163 for intermediate and 164 for expert for my stats.

the best time to go from what i know is daytime during the week?? it seems to be packed on the weekends.

Jaybo

01-02-2008, 02:12 PM

midweek if you can for sure.

redness

01-02-2008, 03:45 PM

I think i'll end up at Seymour, the low student rate, my beginner status, and the "best quality fluffy stuff" is good. As for the calculator it told me a 161 board, which i think i was given last year when i rented. and it said a 163 for intermediate and 164 for expert for my stats.

the best time to go from what i know is daytime during the week?? it seems to be packed on the weekends.

how tall are you and how much do you weigh. a 164 is a huge board good for POW bad in park, the longer the board the easier to learn, but impeeds progress.

I'm 6'1" 185 and i ride a 163 for POW and a 157 for Park and gromed gays
o

Madman

01-02-2008, 04:07 PM

For a beginner i'd say Seymour is def. a good choice. Terrain and price are good. After that Cypress would be next once you get some experience. Grouse is good to change things up and the skyride beats driving up Cypress.

trademark

01-02-2008, 08:52 PM

For seymour during the week keep in mind that many schools frequent the mountain then and therefore you may need to weave in and out of kids. However, I think Seymour is the best mountain to learn on. I certainly would not suggest Grouse (for the touristy reason that someone mentioned above) and Cypress has the best runs and chairs, but also costs the most and is not exactly that newbie friendly.

kerunt

01-02-2008, 11:21 PM

I've been on Cypress the last 3 seasons, but have now moved to grouse. A one-nighter pass @ Cypress cost me around $240. Last spring I got an all-access (any day, any time) pass to Grouse for the remainder of that season (1 month) and all of this season for... $170. "Y2Play" pass promotion - yearly event.

Grouse is fantastic for the value, but Cypress has more (and better) runs, no doubt.

I've been to Seymour once - waste of time. Absolutely horrendous. Chairs are so slow it feels like you're going backwards. Then you finally get to the top, and 2 minutes later you're back on the chair. Argh! Did I mention there are barely any runs? :(.

Grouse is a nice mountain overall, but there's usually lots of people (especially the beginner runs).

Keep in mind that Cypress is a good 20 minutes further drive.

I thought the gondola @ Grouse would be annoying, but it's really not too bad. A max of 10 minutes in line (usually much less) + 6 minute ride beats the extra 20 minute drive to Cypress.

redness

01-03-2008, 11:50 AM

the drive to the top of the hill is the best part, throw on the tunes and get stoked about some good riding. And seymour has lots of runs, you just have to know where to go. Don't stay on the front side, go strait to the back.

POW POW POW

flowrider

01-03-2008, 12:03 PM

For me Cypress has way too many people and all the high speed quad does is put more people on the hill which ruins the snow quality quicker. Fall line on the beginner hill isn't steep enough for learning to snowboard either but the rest of the hill rocks when it isn't littered with people.

Grouse is a parking lot and the tram sucks. Enough said.

Seymour generally has less people on the hill because the lifts are slower, snow is better but in general all North Shore snow is heavy. Fall line on Lodge chair is perfect for beginning snowboarding once you can side slip or pendulum. There tends to be more little "hits" on the sides of the runs as well when you feel then need to play a little as a beginner. Seymour has some hidden gems of runs that are in boundaries if you know where to look (Mystery Lake, Trapper Johns, Christmas Tree).

Of course I am biased having worked up at Seymour for more than 13 years but it really is a great beginner mountain. The key is to ride and ski when no one else is around. I skiied yesterday and started at 8am rode hard till 11:30 and called it a day. Zero lines, fresh snow, multiple runs.

Jaybo

01-03-2008, 12:22 PM

and trust me I'm fn jealous. except for the skiing part.

CanaganD

01-04-2008, 11:56 PM

Recently, it's been pissing me off with the high winds at Cypress and stuff. Mountain gets closed down then EVERYONE goes to Grouse. It wouldn't be so bad, but damn when you get to Grouse, there's almost NO visibility. Blah, and today BOTH mountains were closed to high winds...

Will try again tommorow...

katanarama

01-07-2008, 09:28 PM

Was at Cypress last night, 2 lifts had computer glitches and we got just 4 runs in in 2 hours. Plenty of people complained but we did not get our money back. Very annoying.

Mista J

01-25-2008, 11:53 AM

When I started snowboarding, I checked out Cypress. Beginner-friendly terrain, but it gets crowded really quickly.